Australian Open takes premium packages to another level

In January, fine dining comes to the tennis when Martin Benn and Vicki Wild serve guests in a new purpose-built pavilion called Club 1905.

Chef Martin Benn will cook for guests at a new high-end dining pavilion at the Australian Open. Kristoffer Paulsen

Jill DupleixFood writer

Dec 11, 2024 – 5.00am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

The inaugural Australasian Tennis Championship in 1905 was played on grass courts in front of 5000 “enthusiastic onlookers”, according to the papers of the day.

Details of the catering at Melbourne’s Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground (now the Albert Reserve) are difficult to come by, but you can bet your Dunlop Volleys there would have been tea and fruitcake for the ladies in the shade of the stands, and something stronger for the gentlemen.